Spirit's Ascension-Chapter 60—Deadline

The room immediately grew tense as Cole stared at the old man in front of him with a dead serious expression.

Cole waited for the man to speak. A second went by and then more, but the man remained silent.

He just sat there staring at Cole, not saying a single word.

Slowly, Cole began growing impatient, but the old man still maintained his silence.

Just as Cole was about to lose it all, the man finally opened his mouth.

"You are free; you wouldn’t be getting executed or anything; you can leave your life." The old man said.

Cole was taken aback by the man’s words. He had expected a not-too-serious punishment since they had left him for so long but not a complete absence of any.

"But..." Cole suddenly heard the man say.

"Ahhhh, why can’t you just say it all together?"Cole complained internally.

"You must advance within a week," the old man finally said.

"A week, what does my advancement have to do with this?" Cole asked curiously.

"I don’t think that’s something you need to know;just make sure you meet the deadline or what will come after isn’t something you would like."

"A week uhh, I hope I can make it," Cole thought.

After saying those words, the old man stood up and got ready to leave.

Cole watched him take a few steps forward before directly vanishing, but just before he completely left the room, he said some words.

"Patience is really important for a spiriter;you should really cultivate it."

Cole’s cheeks grew slightly red as he thought back to his moment of impatience just a while back.

"I really need to learn some patience uhhh," Cole said to himself.

He breathed out a sigh of relief after he felt the old man finally leave.

The thought that a little chance of death loomed over his head heavily, causing him to be slightly on edge.

Ding!

He suddenly received a notification on his Academic watch while he was lost in thought.

Cole switched the screen on to check what was going on.

[Congratulations on placing fifth in the freshman placement test.]

[click to see more details]

Cole read the information on the screen with wide eyes. He hadn’t expected to be in the top ten, not to speak of the top five.

He immediately clicked on the button to see further details.

[Cole Bremont]

[Total points: 250]

[Point from defeat of other students: 50]

[Points from threat disposal: 200]

Reading the above information, things became much clearer for Cole.

He could now understand why he was able to place fifth.

"I got points for our battle with those intruders, thank the heavens then," He said.

His earlier relief plus his current happiness elevated his mood to an even higher plane.

Cole had the chance to forget all of the previously accumulated pain and dissatisfaction.

In a world filled with clouds of sorrow, a silver lining is enough to elevate one’s mood.

The rest of the night went on without anything special going on, and in no time, the next day arrived.

The next day, Cole was still hospitalized, and nurses were taking care of him. They have been giving him different vials of medicine while also performing physical treatment.

It was the afternoon of the next day when one of the guys came to visit him again.

"I heard Linda broke through too," Bryan said.

"Ohhh really, that’s really nice," Cole responded with a tinge of jealousy in his voice.

"Also, I haven’t seen Moses and Lucius; it seems they are also preparing to break through."

"Turns out they have all been peak-stage Dormant spiriters for a while."

Cole observed Bryan’s yearning expression while he said those words. He knew his friend also wanted to break through, but something was holding him back.

"What about you, when will you be breaking through?" Cole asked intentionally.

"Uhmmm, I am not sure," Bryan responded.

"Well, you better make haste; I will also be breaking through soon, you don’t want to be left behind by a lowly 1-star, right?"

"You will be breaking through soon, oh really?" Bryan asked.

"Then I will be doing the same too soon," He continued.

Cole watched his friend’s expression grow even brighter when he heard Cole was about to break through too.

The two continued their conversation, but they had long switched to a new topic.

Making the air feel more informal instead of being like an official report, like it previously was.

When the sun began nearing the horizon, Bryan finally left the room to return to the hotel.

"You really want to delay your ascendancy just because of me?" Cole thought internally.

"stupid Bryan."

After Bryan left, the room regained a little bit more silence as Cole was left alone with his thoughts.

The nurse had long left him alone in the room.

For the next two days, the same pattern repeated itself. Bryan visits, discusses with Cole, and then leaves.

On the third day, Cole was finally given permission to move around and do quite a bit of things by the head nurse.

The day after that, Cole went directly to the library. In the library he met the familiar old man guarding it like usual.

But he didn’t move towards the second floor; he stayed on the first floor where ordinary books were kept.

Cole had a direction in his mind, and that was what he planned to follow with the decision he made.

"Knowledge is malleable; understanding is the hammer."

And with that in mind, he dived into the world of reading.

Cole read different books, their topics ranging from Geography to physics and even biology.

He kept on doing this for days. Heading to the library to read till late in the evening before returning.

In the course of reading, Cole found points that further backed up his line of thought.

Different books described the same topic matter in vastly different ways.

Some being more comprehensive, some being superficial, all based on the level of understanding.

Two days ago, Bryan had already successfully advanced to the awakened level, leaving just Cole in the group still in the Dormant level.

When it was just a day till his deadline. Cole felt prepared to advance.

He had long decided to do it in the Library since he felt extremely at peace in that place.

He then went to the old man guarding the library.

"I would like to attempt to advance here. Is that allowed?" Cole said resolutely.